Down three, they gave up an offensive rebound for an Amir Johnson put-back and a 97-92 Toronto lead.

Shane Battier’s inbounds pass was stolen. Brad Miller lost the ball in traffic, though it bounced to Luis Scola for a layup. Kevin Martin missed a tough, contested jumper. Battier missed a corner 3. Kyle Lowry missed a no-chance drive that Johnson easily swatted, sending Sonny Weems on his way to a breakaway dunk and a 102-94 lead with 34.5 seconds left. Ballgame.

“We’re loose with execution,” Battier said of the Rockets’ fall to 3-9 as much as collapse against the Raptors. “We’re taking tough shots under duress. We don’t have a lot of guys who can break somebody down and get a good quality shot with the shot clock running down. To score, we have to run good offense. We have to have our spacing and maintain our responsibilities. When we don’t, it shows.”

The finish was far from the only problem. The Rockets bench was once again a no-show, getting outscored 46-11, while making just 4 of 15 shots. The Rockets paid little attention to defense in the first half, allowing a Raptors team that ranks 24th in shooting to make 53.3 percent in the first half to lead by as much as 13 and by eight at halftime.

The Rockets did rally back in an outstanding third quarter, dramatically improving defensively and getting good shots. But in the final 1:05 of the quarter, the Rockets were outscored 7-0 to end the quarter, finishing the quarter with three tough jumpers and down by one.

After trading baskets and the lead to start the fourth quarter, they stumbled again, as the Raptors rolled through a 12-0 run to a 10-point lead. From the Rockets’ six-point lead late in the third quarter to the 91-81 Toronto lead with 5 ½ minutes remaining, the Rockets made 2 of 12 shots with four turnovers.

"It’s the same old story,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “The second quarter, our bench went in and we stopped scoring. They took the lead on us there. We played well in the third quarter. We just keep having (poor) periods, for whatever reason. The last 1:31 of the third quarter, they get seven straight points on us. We just talked about ‘finish the quarter strong.’

“We’re just making too many mistakes at crucial times. You can’t list everything. The offensive boards they got (11 leading to 13 second-chance points.) Turnovers (17, leading to 18 fast break points) when they opened it up. Just the same story of a lot of games.”

Still, the Rockets rallied again and with 2:49 remaining, they cut the Toronto lead to 95-92. The only baskets they scored the rest of the way came when a loose ball bounced to Scola, giving him 19, and Martin got loose for a late layup to finish with 31.

“Shots didn’t go,” said Kyle Lowry, whose 12 assists were the most for the Rockets this season, but who made just 3 of 9 shots. “We just missed some shots down the stretch.

“It’s been very frustrating. We have to try to forget the past, the past games we lost down the stretch and find a way to fix it.”

Forgetting the past, however, won’t be easy. With the Rockets so far, unable to learn from their past, they keep repeating it.